A Matter of Time
by Andrin
Summary: Time flows ever forward. But now, a person has gained the power to alter that flow. Will he bend it toward a brighter future, or allow himself to succumb to the torrent of past hate? The choice is his, and now it is only a matter of time.
1. Chapter 1

It was a still, quiet night in Konohagakure no sato. One of those nights where people would generally just stay in bed at home and simply try to sleep. In a ninja village however, things are rarely what they seem to be. This night, most of the village's available ninja were out searching. Meanwhile, the subject of their search was sitting alone in a clearing in the forest surrounding the village. He was wearing a hideous orange jumpsuit and was reading from a large scroll sprawled out on the ground before him, his blond hair swaying softly in the wind rustling through the trees around him. Eyes as blue as the ocean were swiftly scanning over the text written on the scroll, trying to memorise everything they read. So concentrated was the boy on the text that he didn't notice the person closing up on him.

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

The boy, now identified as Naruto, instantly perked up at the voice.

'_Ah, well… back to the charade.' _he thought with a sigh.

"Oh, Iruka-sensei. I didn't think you'd find me so quickly. I've only managed to master one jutsu so far." he said, a sheepish grin on his face as he looked up at his sensei. Umino Iruka was a Chuunin of normal build, his brown hair put in a short ponytail. He had no distinguishing features apart from a large scar across his nose. He was wearing the normal Chuunin attire, which consisted of a flak vest, navy-blue pants that were bandaged at the ends to prevent them from making unnecessary sound, a navy-blue long-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue ninja sandals. He was wearing his hitai-ate across his forehead.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei! If I show you this jutsu I mastered from the scroll you will have to graduate me right? Right?"

Iruka fell silent at this, his face changing from anger to one of confusion.

"Wha-what do you mean? Who said that?" He asked the boy.

"Mizuki-sensei did. He told me about this scroll, this place, the secret way of graduating, everything! He said-"

That was all the boy got to say before Iruka managed to put the pieces together and figure out what was going on. Suddenly the sound of kunai slicing through the air reached him and he quickly knocked Naruto out of the way of the deadly projectiles. Iruka himself succeeded in avoiding most of the barrage, but one kunai managed to pierce his thigh. When he looked over at Naruto he could've sworn that the blonde was smirking before his face schooled itself into one of confusion. He slowly looked the same way the boy was looking and saw that his suspicions were true. There, standing on a tree branch, was his long-time friend, Mizuki, two fuuma shuriken strapped to his back, the strands of silver that was his hair sticking out from his bandanna swaying softly in the wind. His face had an unpleasant smirk plastered on it.

"Naruto. Give me the scroll of seals!" he suddenly shouted, his voice bearing a slight tint of madness.

"Naruto," Iruka shouted to the boy, "don't give the scroll to him even if you die. That scroll is dangerous, Mizuki tried to use you to get hold of it!"

Naruto, who had been silent all this time, opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Mizuki.

"Naruto, Iruka is afraid of you having that scroll. He's afraid of what you may be able to do with it." he yelled.

"Mizuki, stop this! Naruto, don't listen to him, he only wants the scroll for himself!" Iruka answered while pulling the kunai out of his thigh.

Meanwhile, Naruto had been planning his next course of action.

'_Iruka-sensei showing up complicates things… I don't want to show what I can do to anyone, but this leaves me with no choice. I really don't want Iruka-sensei to be hurt. This means I'll have to stop my act as well though… Oh well, I guess I'll just have to ask him not to tell anyone and hope for the best. Now for-'_ that was all he managed to think before Mizuki said something that made his world freeze.

"Naruto, do you want to know why everyone, even Iruka, hate you?"

"Wh-what?! No, Mizuki! That's forbi-" started Iruka before Mizuki interrupted him.

"Twelve years ago a law was made in this village. A law that no one was to tell you about."

The twelve-year old instantly perked up at this.

"Wh-what law? Tell me!" he shouted.

"N-no. Stop it Mizuki!" Iruka screamed in a desperate try to stop the inevitable.

"The law stated that no one would be allowed to tell you that you are the Kyuubi no Youko, the demon that killed thousands of people, Iruka's parents among them, and almost destroyed our village twelve years ago!" Mizuki yelled, madness now overtaking each word leaving his mouth.

That made Naruto freeze up completely. Suddenly everything made perfect sense. The glares, the cold words, the beatings, why no one wanted to play with him when he was little, everything.

'_A-am I really a demon? Was it really me that did all of that twelve years ago?'_

He was so shocked and wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the fuuma shuriken closing in on him until he was lying on the ground with Iruka on top of him, the shuriken stuck in the Chuunin's back. It was the blood splashing on his face that snapped Naruto out of his daze.

Meanwhile, Iruka was almost overwhelmed by guilt, oblivious to the pain in his back. The pained expression on Naruto's face was all too clear to him, and the fact that he was once among the persons who caused that pain wrecked his heart. Then came something that made his blood freeze. Acceptance spread across the young boy's face.

'_He accepts that he is a demon? What has the village done to him to cause such a reaction?!' _

Unknown to himself, tears had begun to flow down Iruka's cheeks. They splashed down on Naruto's face and mingled with the blood stained on it, sliding slowly over the whisker marks on the boy's cheeks.

"W-why?" was all the twelve-year old managed to choke out.

"Because we are the same…" came Iruka's answer, his voice filled with guilt.

"After my parents died, there was no one to comfort me, congratulate me or recognise my existence. So I started to act stupid and clumsy to make people laugh and see me at all. But all the time I was so lonely." by now the tears flowing down Iruka's cheeks came even faster.

"Yeah. You must've been lonely too. That pain… The pain of loneliness, that must be the most horrible pain in the world…" Iruka's voice was now little more than a hoarse whisper, but it was so filled with emotion that every word drilled its way straight into Naruto's heart.

"I'm sorry Naruto. If I had been a better person you wouldn't have had to feel this way…"

Before Iruka could say anything else, Mizuki started to laugh.

"Iruka, stop fooling yourself!" he yelled after a while, his laughter finally ebbing out.

"Naruto, Iruka didn't mean anything he said. He has always hated you for killing his parents! He's just trying to get the scroll back from you."

The boy in question had no idea what to believe. He had seen the truth in Iruka's eyes, but no one could like a demon, right? With no coherent thought running through his head, Naruto did what his instincts were screaming at him to do, he ran. He had no idea where or for how long he ran, but he ended up sitting with his back against a tree trying to comprehend what just happened.

Everything had gone according to plan, he had managed to find the scroll of seals without any problems at all --Mizuki really knew too much-- and he had found the designated clearing way ahead of time. He had managed to master one of the jutsu described in the scroll but decided to avoid the others, as they seemed to be too dangerous to the user for him to be comfortable in using them, there was a reason behind calling the scroll 'forbidden' after all. He had planned on luring Mizuki into a trap and expose him as no one would've believed him if he had told them what the Chuunin was planning. Then Iruka showed up and everything went down the drain.

Before the twelve-year old could reflect more he could start to hear two voices talking to each other. Afraid that he might be found, Naruto tried to stay as silent as he could and he decided that it was best to determine who the persons were, so he sneaked closer to listen in. What he heard was Iruka and Mizuki 'discussing' something.

At first he couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but when he got close enough it was clear that it was him they were talking about.

"Naruto and I are the same," came Mizuki's voice, "if you use the skills in that scroll, you can do whatever you want. There's no way that that Demon Fox wouldn't try to use that kind of power."

"Yeah…" came Iruka's answer.

'_So it's true then. Even Iruka-sensei thinks that I'm a demon. No one will ever acknowledge me for who I am.'_ the blonde thought after hearing that. Before he could do anything else however, Iruka continued speaking.

"If he was the Kyuubi. But Naruto is different. He works hard and tries his best, but because of something he had no choice over no one acknowledge him. He has already experienced more pain than most will during an entire lifetime, but he has always come out on top. He isn't, nor has he ever been the Demon Fox. He is Konohagakure's Uzumaki Naruto, and one of my most excellent students!"

At this Naruto started to cry. Partly because he finally found someone who acknowledged him as a person, and partly because he was feeling guilty that he had been lying to Iruka for so long. He was so overcome with emotion that he almost missed Mizuki's yell and said Chuunin's charge toward the wounded and panting Iruka. But just when the silver-haired traitor was about to throw his last fuuma shuriken at his fellow Chuunin it was kicked out of his hand by Naruto. Iruka, who had closed his eyes in preparation for his death opened them when he didn't feel cold steel pierce his body. What he saw shocked him greatly. There, right in front of him, stood Naruto, his head lowered and the scroll of seals lying on the ground beside him. Mizuki, who had just recovered from the shock of the blond boy appearing from nowhere and disarming him with just one swift blow, started to yell something incoherent, an insane glint in his eyes. Naruto raised his head and glared at the crazed traitor, his eyes twin chips of ice.

"Touch one hair on Iruka-sensei and I'll kill you." his voice was calm, but colder than a midwinter night. The monotony in his tone made it clear that it was a statement, not a threat.

"Then try it demon! I'll kill you now and rid the world of your taint!" Mizuki yelled, not even a hint of sanity left in his voice.

Meanwhile, Naruto was slowly raising his hands up in a seal. Iruka's eyes widened when he recognised it.

**"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" **Naruto practically yelled out, and as soon as the words left his mouth almost two hundred perfect clones of him appeared in the clearing they were standing in. They started to crack their knuckles and began speaking in unison.

"You have attacked both a citizen and a Chuunin of Konoha with the intent to kill. That classes you as a traitor and gives me the right to kill you without repercussions. However, I believe I have something more fitting for someone like you."

As the clones said this they started to move toward a paralysed Mizuki. Two of them grabbed him while the rest stood guard, covering any potential escape routes. Meanwhile, the real Naruto stood near Iruka. He turned around and smiled at his sensei before putting his hands in a seal. Suddenly emerald green chakra started to pour out of him and swirl around him, making it look like he was surrounded by a green flame. Iruka was shocked by this, as he had never seen chakra like the one Naruto was expelling in waves. Suddenly said blonde started to go through hand seals almost as if his hands had lives of their own.

'_What is he doing? I have never seen that combination of seals before. And that chakra… It's not demonic, but it's still not the one I've seen him use all the time in class.' _

Then Naruto opened his eyes. What Iruka saw then shocked him more than anything else this entire night. The blonde's eyes were glowing and each iris had eight green triangles in two different sizes within them, each triangle pointing toward the pupil. Then the boy said the name of the jutsu he was performing.

**"Tokiton: Kanshiki no Hitomukashi!" **he said, and at the same time the chakra swirling around him disappeared. Naruto then raised his left hand, and Iruka thought that he could see a distortion in the air around said hand. Green tendrils of chakra flared out every now and then as the boy turned around to face Mizuki. He began to walk slowly toward the Chuunin, who by now was shivering uncontrollably. He then started to explain just what was going on.

"This is a jutsu of my own creation that only I can use. It allows me to control the lapse of time in and around a person, thus allowing me to age that person until only dust remain. I wasn't planning on showing this to anyone, but I think you deserve it."

All of this was said in a cold monotony that would've made Uchiha Itachi proud. By now the blonde had reached the traitorous Chuunin and proceeded to place the palm of his outstretched hand on said Chuunin's forehead --the traitor's bandanna having been removed by one of the clones-- causing the silver haired man to scream in agony as his body began to age faster and faster. Just when Iruka thought that Naruto was actually going to kill his former friend with this strange new jutsu said boy removed his hand from the traitor's now severely wrinkled forehead and let the energy surging through his hand subside while dispelling his clones. He turned around and walked back to his shocked sensei to check him for injuries, a small smile starting to spread across his face. Iruka quickly realised that this was probably the first real smile that he had seen on his favourite student. This caused all the guilt to return with a vengeance, but he forced it back for the time being, as he had a student to take care of. Unable to fully comprehend what had happened, the academy teacher did the only thing that came to mind.

"Naruto, come over here please." he called, as said blonde had walked over to the scroll of seals and checked it for eventual damage. The aforementioned academy student perked up at his voice and did as he asked, the scroll securely fastened on his back.

"Close your eyes." the Chuunin then commanded. Naruto complied, all the while wondering what this was about. He could feel the goggles he always wore over his forehead be removed and replaced by soft cloth. Realisation hit him at the same time that his sensei told him it was ok to open his eyes.

"Congratulations, you graduate." the academy teacher said, a soft smile playing on his lips. Unwillingly, the now graduated academy student felt tears trickle down his cheeks. He looked up at his sensei and returned the smile before enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug.

* * *

Unknown to both of them, another person had been watching the events, and was equally shocked at what the blonde had done. 

"How come he never told me anything about this?" he wondered aloud to himself while leaning back in his chair, finally taking his eyes off of the crystal sphere in front of him.

"Tora!"

An ANBU stepped out of the shadows after the call of his title and addressed the man who had called for him.

"What is it Hokage-sama?" he asked in a respectful tone.

"Please tell the Jounin to call off the search, and send an ANBU team to training ground 37. You will find the traitor there, though he won't look the same way you think he will." the Hokage answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say that he's given a new meaning to the phrase 'ageing overnight'" the elderly Hokage said with a chuckle.

The ANBU just shrugged and prepared to leave when the Hokage spoke up again.

"Could you bring Umino Iruka and Uzumaki Naruto to my office as well by the way?"

This was a rather strange request according to the ANBU, but it was orders and he would follow them to the letter.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." he said with a bow. He then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

With that the Hokage began to prepare his pipe with a sigh.

'_This is going to be a long night.' _he thought with yet another sigh, he felt like he was going to do that quite a lot in the near future.

* * *

Jutsu list:

**"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"**("Mass Shadow Replication Technique"): Creates a large amount of solid clones, each one capable of doing everything that the original can do. They will burst after one good hit, after which the exess chakra will be returned to the original along with everything the clone remembers.

**"Tokiton: Kanshiki no Hitomukashi"**("Time Release: Judgement of the Ages"): Jutsu unique to Naruto. Requires contact with the target's skin as well as a large amount of chakra. Slowly ages the target until it's nothing more than a withered husk. The process is completely reversed if it is interrupted before it's complete, though the user can choose to end it prematurely without reversing the effects and thus keeping the target's body at the age it's at when the jutsu was stopped.

This has been an idea that I've had for quite some time now and I've finally taken my time to post it.

I know that some things are a bit strange, but things will be explained in the next chapter.

As it is my first fanfic I would really like to get some constructive critisism so that I can improve in areas that are lacking. So if you see any misplaced words, incorrect grammar or things like that feel free to tell me.


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto and Iruka were on their way to their favourite ramen restaurant to celebrate the blonde's graduation, as well as take their minds off of the night's events. As they were walking an ANBU stepped out of the shadows. Naruto was immediately on edge, but relaxed when he saw the porcelain mask in the form of a tiger that the shinobi was wearing. All members of ANBU were at least civil to him, something he was very grateful for. Iruka was merely confused, as it was not very often that someone from ANBU showed him- or herself to normal ninja without a very good reason. As it turned out, this particular ANBU had such a reason.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Umino Iruka. I have been instructed to escort you to the Hokage's office. Please follow me." the voice was a bit cold, but not unkind, and the blond soon-to-be Genin figured that this particular member of ANBU always spoke like that.

He glanced at his sensei, who nodded, then turned to the ANBU with a nod of his own. The masked nin returned the gesture and led them toward the Hokage tower.

* * *

Sarutobi smiled when he heard the knock on the door that signalled the arrival of the boy that was like a grandson to him. His smile faltered a bit however, when he saw the look on said boy's face. Naruto's next words caused the smile to die completely and the elderly Hokage let out yet another sigh, it would seem like his premonition would turn out to be true. 

"I take it that you want some answers, Hokage-sama?"

The boy never called him that unless he was completely serious, and considering the look on said blonde's face when he looked at the crystal orb that was still on the desk in front of Sarutobi, this would be such a time.

"However, before I even think about answering any of your questions I want an answer to one of my own." the twelve-year old said in a cold tone.

The Hokage's eyes immediately turned sad at that sentence, he knew what that question would be before the boy in front of him even voiced it. He looked over at the other occupant of the room. Iruka merely looked flustered and confused at his blond student's actions. The old man sighed yet again and returned his attention to the blue-eyed boy in front of him.

"Very well. State your question." he said in a tired voice. Naruto felt a bit of guilt when he looked at his grandfather figure. The sad eyes and wrinkled face made the boy realise just how old the Hokage actually was. He forced down the guilt however, he needed answers and he needed them now.

"Why?" was all he said. That was all he needed to say, and he knew it. Both the Hokage and Iruka knew perfectly well what he meant.

"First of all," the Hokage started, "I would like to apologise, both for me and for the Fourth. Even if we don't deserve it."

"So it's true then. And to think that I actually looked up to that bastard. But it seems like he was just a coward after all. Using an orphan to save this ungrateful excuse for a village. And he probably died so that he wouldn't have to see what happened to me."

The hate and pain in the twelve-year olds words caused the guilt that already wrecked Sarutobi to increase ten-fold.

'_So young, and yet he's endured so much pain. And to think that this has lead to him of all people hating you. I'm really sorry that I haven't been able to keep the promise Minato-kun. You would have been ashamed of what your village has done to him.' _he thought as he turned his gaze from Naruto to the picture of the Yondaime as if hoping that the picture could respond to his thoughts. Obviously, no answer came, and with another sigh, the Sandaime Hokage turned his look back to the blue eyed boy in front of him. He cleared his throat.

"Now," he began, sadness and regret present in his voice, "to answer your question. He did it not because you were the only one available, but because you were the only one who could possibly keep the most powerful Bijuu sealed inside your body without dying or it taking over. It is a bit too complicated for me to understand the details fully, but your body is special. It is more resistant, and your soul is securely chained to it, making it impossible for anything to take possession of you. As such, you were the only one who could hope to survive the power surge that would come with the sealing, as well as the force released when the Kyuubi's chakra was transformed into yours. You, and you alone could keep the Kyuubi locked away forever." as he finished, he saw that shock had spread over the boy's features. However, instead of continuing to study the blonde's facial expression, Sarutobi continued with the explanation.

"As for my part in this. The Yondaime wanted you to be seen as a hero, as the person who saved the village every day by keeping the Kyuubi from it. However, the villagers never accepted you as that, instead seeing you as the demon itself, and I was forced to create a law to prevent anyone to tell this generation what was sealed within you. This was meant to give you a normal life, but the villagers found loopholes in my law, and told their children to keep away from you. I also suspect that some of them even tried to physically hurt you, am I right?"

At this the boy nodded stiffly and opened his mouth to speak, however it took a while before he found his voice.

"Y-yeah. They used to punish me every day at the orphanage." he said, but after seeing the Hokage's facial expression he quickly added "But the bruises would be gone by the next morning, so it didn't matter too much." at this, the Hokage's face turned even darker, while Iruka, who had remained silent all this time, started to stutter.

"Y-you m-mean that they actually beat you every day!? A-and that it didn't matter?"

"Yeah, why?" Naruto responded, while he mentally prayed that they wouldn't ask about things that happened outside of the orphanage.

The Chuunin couldn't comprehend what he was hearing. Not only had his student been beaten almost every day in his first six years of life, but he had gotten so used to it that it didn't matter to him anymore. Iruka felt sick. How could someone do that to a young child, and why hadn't he noticed that something was wrong with his student? Then he remembered, he had been one of those hurting the blonde, not physically, but he had given the boy impossible questions or assignments during class and had punished him when he didn't manage to answer the questions or finish the assignments. It was only in the last few years that he had started to see that Naruto was a person and not a monster. If possible, he felt even worse.

As if reading his sensei's thoughts, Naruto turned toward the Chuunin.

"Don't worry Iruka-sensei. I don't blame you." he said this with a small but sincere smile on his lips.

"As for you Hokage-sama. I can't be angry at you. You have always been there for me, and you did all this to try and make things better. I can't really forgive you just yet for not telling me this earlier though…" he trailed off at this, but the look on his face told the elderly Hokage that the boy meant what he said. It was more than Sarutobi thought he deserved, but he nonetheless felt flattered that the boy thought so highly of him. He smiled slightly and nodded his head in recognition of what the blonde had said.

"Thank you for answering my question Hokage-sama." Naruto continued with a small bow. The old man felt slightly saddened when he heard the blonde still calling him by his title, but decided that it was probably because of the seriousness of the situation. He sighed, took another puff from his pipe and leaned back in his chair.

"Now, mind telling us exactly what you did tonight Naruto-kun?" Sarutobi asked after a short but comfortable silence.

Naruto sighed softly in response as he thought about what he should do.

_'Ah well… I guess there's no avoiding it now. Besides, it would be nice to tell someone the whole truth. I'm sick of having to lie all the time.'_

"I did precisely what I said I'd do," he began, "I manipulated the flow of time in and around the traitor's body, ageing it until it was biologically 80 years old. Much more fitting than death if you ask me."

"We knew that much." the Hokage interjected, "What I'd like to know is how you can do it and why you never told anyone."

"What I'd like to know is what that green chakra was, and how you used it." Iruka piped in before Naruto had a chance of starting to answer the Hokage's questions.

"Alright," Naruto started while he turned his attention to Iruka, "that green chakra is my own chakra-" before he could continue however, Iruka interrupted him.

"How is that possible?! I have seen you use your chakra, and it is blue as everyone else's is."

"As I was saying," the blonde answered with a slight hint of irritation in his voice, "the green chakra is my own chakra. When I first saw that my chakra was green when everyone else had blue I thought that that was why everyone hated me, so I found a way to cast a genjutsu on it to make it look like it was blue like everyone else's was. After a while it was natural for me to do it, even if people still hated me."

The two other occupants in the room were shocked speechless at this revelation. It was the Hokage who found his voice first.

"You mean that you were able to cast a genjutsu that even fooled me over your chakra of all things? And you did it when you were just seven?"

"Five actually. You had to be able to mould chakra in order to enter the academy remember? And yes, all I had to do was to make the chakra move in certain patterns so that it would bend light around it, only releasing the blue light-waves and absorbing the others while at the same time hindering it from releasing its own light, as it normally does. At first I had to make a few additional seals before every jutsu I used in order for the genjutsu to take effect, but after a while I could do it without even thinking about it."

Even for Sarutobi, this was unheard of. To come up with such an idea and be able to move chakra in such an ingenious way. And at five no less. How could the village have overlooked such a genius? Then it hit him. All this time, Naruto had behaved like an idiot, and the village had bought it without a question. Even he, the Sandaime Hokage, nicknamed the 'professor' because of his vast intellect and cunning, had been fooled by the young blonde's act. He wondered if he should slap himself, congratulate his 'grandson' for the ingenious charade or do both. He decided on simply asking why the boy had acted like an idiot. Said blonde's eyes widened slightly in surprise of being found out, then lowered in sadness.

"When I started the academy," Naruto began, and Iruka immediately felt the guilt return. He knew exactly where this would be going, "all the teachers would give me questions impossible for a normal academy student to answer. If I would get the answer right they would ask me where the scroll I'd supposedly stolen to get the information from was hidden, and if I didn't get it right they would ridicule me in front of the whole class. On every written test they would sabotage my score or grade me unfairly, and if I complained they would accuse me of cheating and would remove all the points I actually got on the test. After a while I got sick of it all and started to act like the idiot they wanted me to be, all the while memorising everything they said on the lessons." by the time he had finished the Hokage was shaking in barely controlled rage while Iruka had his head down in shame.

Sarutobi could not believe what he had just heard. This went against the very principles of the academy. For not one, but all of the academy teachers to consciously sabotage a student's education, simply because they were biased against him. Before he could continue on with this train of thought though, Naruto spoke up once again.

"The second reason for it was that whenever I would show that I knew something tied to the ninja arts to the villagers they looked at me in fear instead of hate, something that felt far worse. So I started to act like an idiot in general so that people wouldn't be afraid of me. Seems like it was for nought though, though it did reduce the amount of looks of fear around me. I hate the feeling of being feared just for walking down the street."

"A good shinobi will be feared in much the same way that you just explained Naruto-kun." was Sarutobi's response.

"I know, but not like this… No one should be feared by their neighbours simply for living in the apartment under them. It just feels wrong."

"As much as I would like to continue our talk about this it would seem as if we have gotten off topic." Sarutobi interjected, though he really wanted to know how his 'grandson' had been treated.

"Right. You wanted to know about how I did what I did, correct?" Naruto asked, and at the Hokage's nod, continued.

"Up until now I've believed that it was a bloodline, but it seems more likely that it's the fox's doing." the blonde started, the word fox practically spat out. "I really don't want to talk about how I got it though." upon seeing the Hokage's frown after that comment he realised his bad wording and tried to amend it.

"No one got hurt or anything if that's what you're thinking." he said quickly, then continued in a more subdued tone.

"It just… brings back some bad memories, ok."

Not wanting to further press the matter the Hokage asked him to explain what it did instead.

"Well, as you have probably guessed by now, it involves time. Basically, I can manipulate the flow of time around me to do my bidding." Naruto began.

"You mean as in controlling time?" Iruka asked, a slight hint of shock on his face.

"No, manipulate. Not control. Nothing can control the forces of time." Naruto answered, not at all bothered with the interruption this time as it was a sound question that wouldn't have been answered during his explanation.

"Anyway. You probably saw that my eyes looked strange when I was using my powers, right Iruka-sensei?" at the Chuunin's nod he continued.

"Well the first thing I would like to say about that is that this is not a doujutsu. It is simply a way for my body to express how attuned I am to the time-stream. It used to show every time I used chakra, but I managed to make it so that it only shows when I use these 'time powers'. And before you ask, that is not due to a genjutsu, my eyes simply don't change normally anymore." the blonde let his words sink in a bit before continuing.

"Well, back to the subject at hand. As I said my body shows my alignment with the time-stream through my eyes, or namely the triangles in my eyes. From what I've been able to deduce the triangles come in two sizes due to what they represent. The smaller ones simply strengthens my bonds with the time-stream, granting me better control over my powers, while the larger ones, of which I have two by the way, seems to grant me more specialised powers. The first one I got made me able to slow down time in a field around me, something I found to be very useful while running from victims of my pranks." the last part made Sarutobi's mouth twitch into something in-between a smile and a scowl.

'_Trust Naruto-kun to turn anything into pranking material.' _he thought, but he acknowledged the usefulness of that kind of power when it came to that subject.

"Please tell me that that was not the only thing you found it useful for." Iruka said with an exasperated sigh.

"Of course not. And even during my pranks it was a great way for me to learn how to use it in mission-like situations." the twelve-year old calmly responded.

Had it not been unbecoming of his position Sarutobi would've gaped. He had not really expected Naruto to actually use his pranking as a way to train. Then again, he had not really expected said boy to do anything like what he had done tonight.

"Well, as I was saying, the first one gave me the ability to slow time. But the second one actually allowed me to bend time in an entirely different way. I could use my chakra as a conduct for my powers, thus allowing me to create time-based jutsu like the one I used earlier." he was smiling at this point, and the two other occupants of the room could practically feel the pride in the boy's words.

"It took a lot of hard work and thinking to come up with anything, but I think that I've created some really useful techniques with it. As for the other two large triangles, I have no idea what they do yet."

"How do you know that there are more, and that there are two more at that Naruto-kun?" the Sandaime asked in confusion.

"The triangles I currently have are put in an odd way, and judging from that I think that I have four triangles in total left before I'm fully attuned to the time-stream. But since I haven't had a single one of them activate in a little under two years I think it'll be a long time before I manage to do that."

"I see. That would make sense I guess. Is there anything else to that you would like to say about this then, or should I allow you to leave? Those wounds on Umino-san looks quite severe after all."

Iruka had the decency to blush. He had been so caught up in the night's events that he had completely forgotten his injuries. Naruto simply laughed sheepishly while scratching the back of his head, a gesture that reminded Sarutobi that the boy in front of him was just that; a young boy. Someone who shouldn't have had to endure so much and be forced to grow up so fast. He was brought out of his silent and somewhat morose musing when Naruto spoke up once again.

"There are a few more things that I'd like to talk about, but could we take those tomorrow morning instead? I don't want Iruka-sensei to die of blood loss after all the trouble I went through to save him. And besides, my ramen is waiting!"

As if to further reinforce his statement, Naruto's stomach chose that moment to grumble. Loudly. The young blonde blushed out of embarrassment of his rebellious stomach, while the elderly Hokage simply chuckled at the boy's antics. Iruka simply shook his head once, bowed to the Hokage and left the room with Naruto following behind. Just as the blue-eyed boy reached the door Sarutobi remembered something.

"Oh, Naruto-kun. You never told me what your bloodline was called."

Said blonde froze, chuckled sheepishly and turned slightly to face his amused 'grandfather' before answering.

"Oh, sorry Ojii-san. I simply call it Kouinsoujuu." and with that he left the room.

Happy that he was once again called by his nickname the Sandaime mused on the name Naruto had given the new bloodline.

'_Kouinsoujuu hmm? Straight to the point and still it sounds good. That boy is simply full of surprises. Though I don't really understand why I should be surprised at that. You were the same after all weren't you, Minato-kun?'_

He glanced up at the portrait of the Yondaime once again, smiled, and returned to what he had been dealing with before the interruption of his surrogate grandson. Paperwork. He sighed deeply yet again. Yes, his premonition had definitely come true.

* * *

Words: 

**Kouinsoujuu:** The name Naruto has given his bloodline. It simply means Time Manipulation. Not so original, but it gets the point across.

Ok, I forgot to put this in the last time, so I'll do that now.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own anything concerning Naruto.

And once again I'm sorry for the vagueness of the last chapter. I hope that this has cleared a few things up, and I'm currently working on chapter three, which I hope will be longer.

All I can say about the bloodline right now is that the origin for it will be something very original and that the Kyuubi will have nothing to do with it. As for the whole part with the soul and Naruto's body being more resilient, you'll just have to wait and see. I'd also like to repeat that the bloodline is not a Doujutsu, but I couldn't figure out a better way to show how far it has progressed (tattoos all over Naruto's body simply didn't feel quite right).

As for the whole part about the things he did when he was five, he did not really know exactly what it was he was doing, he's simply good at thinking logically (at least when he's not in emotional distress) and did what he thought would lessen the hate thrown at him.

I'd be very grateful if you told me what you think, and also if you find anything that could need improvement. And please do not ask for any pairings, as I do not have any romance intended (apart from the obvious Sasuke fangirls and Jiraiya's lecherous ways). This might change some time in the future, but for now, there are no intended pairings.

Thanks for reading!

/Andrin


	3. Chapter 3

It was early morning in Konoha. The first merchants had opened their shops or put up their stalls at the marketplace. Ninja of different ranks were traversing the village, some through the streets and some across the rooftops. A team of Genin were out on an early D-ranked mission, struggling to keep the large dog they were supposed to walk from running after a cat that had crossed the road. And in a small apartment in the poorer parts of the village Uzumaki Naruto had just gotten out of bed.

It had been a week since the events after the Genin exam, and today was the day that he would be put in a team together with two other graduates. This was not what was on the young boy's mind though, as he groggily made his way to the bathroom for a quick shower. Still half asleep, he almost slipped upon the discarded pieces of clothing that he had forgotten to pick up the previous evening. He caught himself on the basin, now slightly more awake, and turned on the shower. He stripped, got in, and sighed contently at the hot water that fell upon him, dampening his hair and soothing the sore spot on his back, a reminder of the mistake he did during his training the day before.

He had been practising his balance and his skill at throwing kunai at the same time but had been so focused on hitting his target that he had forgotten that he was standing on a narrow pole and not on the ground. His throw --which missed-- was followed by a yelp and an undignified fall off of said pole. As to make matters worse he had fallen upon a sharp rock that was conveniently placed just below the pole, thus the --now mostly healed-- injury on his back.

He absently scratched the skin where the wound had been while reminiscing about the somewhat brief discussion he'd been having with the Hokage on the day after graduation. Nothing much had been said, he had simply explained how his bloodline worked in a bit more detail and had asked the Hokage for a change of clothes, as all of the clothing stores refused to let him enter. The new clothes had arrived the previous evening, and he was anxious to try them on.

'_Oh, Ojii-san asked me if I still had the same dream as before as well.' _he remembered with a small sigh.

At first, he honestly didn't know. But the past week had given him a lot of time to think, and he had come to the conclusion that he shouldn't dwell in the past, instead drawing strength from his past experiences while looking toward the future. So he had, at least mostly, forgiven the villagers and more importantly, the Yondaime for what they had done to him. He had decided to show the villagers himself that he was his own person and had vowed himself to become the hero the Yondaime had wanted him to be. This was easy enough in his head, but he knew that he would have a hard time ahead of him if he was to prove himself to the village.

He pushed those thoughts from his head and stepped out of the shower, rubbing his hair dry with a towel with one hand while putting another around his waist with the other. Once he was completely dry he walked into the kitchen and put a kettle of water on the stove. While waiting for the water to boil he took two cups of instant ramen from a cupboard and a pair of newly washed chopsticks from a neat pile beside the sink. Opening the refrigerator he frowned at the lack of food inside.

'_Seems like I'll have to stop by a food store on my way home today.' _he thought while frowning at the expired milk he held in his hand. Shrugging, he threw the milk into the waste bin before picking up the kettle and filling the ramen cups with the boiled water.

After the ramen was ready he mumbled a quick 'Itadakimasu' before quickly slurping up the noodles. When the noodles were gone he began to absently sip on the broth while pondering on who his team-mates would be.

'_As long as it's not Sasuke I'm fine with it.'_

If there was one person Naruto couldn't stand it was Sasuke. They had been in the same class in the academy since the start, and while Sasuke hadn't been too bad at the beginning he had changed after the massacre. Out of all the Uchihas in the village, he was the only survivor. After that he had started to brood a lot, and had begun treating everyone like they were below him.

Naruto, who had seen how lonely he looked once, had offered him his friendship, but Sasuke had turned him down, behaving as if the blonde was nothing more than dirt under his sandals. After that, said boy had given up on the brooding Uchiha as he no longer deserved his friendship.

Seeing that his mood was getting darker, Naruto stopped thinking about the last Uchiha and walked back into his living-room-made-bedroom to finally try on his new clothes.

* * *

Ten minutes later he was happily making his way toward the academy. He had lots of curious looks thrown his way as people didn't seem to recognise him. This only caused a smile to appear on his face and he revelled in the lack of hate toward him.

His new outfit was nothing special really, just a pair of forest-green shorts and a short-sleeved jacket of the same colour, but to Naruto it was perfect. It was made out of a light yet extremely sturdy material, but it did not halter his movements in the slightest. He had strapped the new kunai pouch that came with the outfit to his right thigh, just where it wouldn't be in the way and where he'd still be able to easily reach for a kunai. To complete the ensemble he had tied his new hitai-ate to his forehead, keeping his hair from falling into his eyes. All in all it was a huge improvement over his usual jumpsuit. He shuddered unconsciously at the memory of the orange eyesore --which he had burned after getting the new clothes-- and continued his trek toward the academy.

* * *

Before long, the academy came into view. Naruto slightly increased his pace as it wouldn't do if he was late for this. Only half the class was there when he stepped into the classroom, and, after a brief look at the clock hanging on the wall beside the blackboard, he deduced that it was because it was still about thirty minutes before the meeting was to begin.

'_It's ironic if I think about it. I have the power to manipulate time, yet I still need a clock to tell what time it actually is.'_

Shrugging, he simply went to his usual seat and sat down, not noticing the curious looks he was getting. He was still happy for the lack of hate toward him today, but now that he had reached the academy his thoughts once again returned to the subject of team-mates. He was quickly brought out of his musings when a bored voice spoke up beside him.

"Hey, who are you? This is only for gradu- Naruto?" the bored tone of the voice was replaced by surprise when he raised his head, and as he glanced at the owner of the voice that had intruded upon his pondering he was met with the lazy, yet slightly surprised face of Nara Shikamaru, one of his classmates.

"Yep, that's me." was the response the blonde gave, and after a little thought he added "And before you ask. Look at what I'm wearing on my forehead."

Shikamaru, who had been in the process of opening his mouth to ask what the blonde did there, complied and quickly shut his mouth, a dawning look on his face. He muttered a quick congratulation, followed by something that sounded like 'troublesome', before stalking off to find his own seat.

Naruto briefly followed the Nara with his eyes, before turning his gaze toward the door of the classroom, where a commotion of some sort was taking place. What he saw was the infamous pair of friends-turned-rivals, Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura. Ino was a fellow blonde, but while Naruto's hair resembled the colour of the sun, Ino's was paler, as was her eyes, both a pale blue that bordered on turquoise. She was garbed in some strange purple outfit that couldn't be practical but apparently was, if her grades was anything to go by.

Naruto shrugged it off as a girl thing.

He only briefly scanned over Ino before his eyes fell on Sakura. She had long hair coloured the same shade of pink as her namesake, a slightly-larger-than-normal forehead, and eyes a shade of green that could put emeralds to shame. _'The same shade of green as my chakra.'_ he mused absently. Naruto had had a 'crush' on her for a long time, or at least he thought that's what it was called. Whenever he looked at her he was reminded of those eyes, along with a bright smile, and it always made him feel warm inside. He smiled brightly in his mind when she looked his way, but it faltered when he remembered who was next to him.

Uchiha Sasuke. Not only was he the 'Rookie of the year' and a stuck up bastard, but he was also the only boy on the mind of every single girl in the academy, including Sakura and Ino, who were both on their way toward him, each sporting a murderous glint in their eyes. Not wanting to be on the receiving end of their wrath, Naruto quickly bolted out of his seat to allow one of them passage to the seat next to the brooding Uchiha. Unfortunately, he had done a minor miscalculation in his hurry to get out of the way, and the result was him tripping on his own feet and falling flatly to the floor.

'_And here I thought I had promised myself to stop the acting.' _was the thought running through his head, and he was slightly angry at himself for still acting like the boisterous idiot he had made himself out to be. He purged those thoughts from his mind for the time being and got up, plastered a fake grin on his face to hide his frustration to his laughing classmates, and returned to his seat as Sakura had managed to place herself next to the raven-haired Uchiha while a fuming Ino had stalked off to find another seat. He looked at the pink-haired girl next to him and sighed.

Normally, he did everything by logic, not allowing his feelings to get in the way. --_'Just like the academy has taught us.'_ he thought absently.-- Yet he couldn't logically explain why he was the way he was when he was close to Sakura. The girl was never nice to him, always belittling him or comparing him to Sasuke, yet whenever he was near her all he wanted was to make her smile. It was a strange and rather foreign feeling to him, but as he didn't have an explanation for it he labelled it off as this 'love' thing that all the girls in the academy seemed so fond of. He had no idea what this 'love' really was, and, as he couldn't get into the village's library, he had no way of finding a book to describe it.

'_It would be nice to know though. It seems to have quite a lot of power over at least the females in class, and knowing about it could give me an advantage should I need one.'_

Nothing productive would come out from that train of thought, at least not without sufficient information on the subject at hand, so Naruto instead thought of the jutsu he was currently working on. It was purely to be used for convenience, so it wouldn't need a fancy name, and it was almost complete. All he would need to do now was test it, to see if his calculations were correct.

His brow furrowed in thought, Naruto absently scribbled down notes about the technique on a piece of paper that he had found lying on his desk. As such he almost missed the fact that the classroom had grown quiet, and that Iruka was now standing in front of the blackboard, waiting for the last noise to ebb out before beginning with his congratulatory speech.

It was lucky that the blonde had the presence of mind to watch his surroundings, or he wouldn't have been able to catch the blackboard eraser that was flying toward his head.

Satisfied that he now had all the students' attention --and that his favourite one apparently had better reflexes than the Chuunin had assumed-- Iruka began with the speech, explaining the expectations that the village would have toward the graduates and the importance of working together.

It was nothing that Naruto hadn't heard before, the Sandaime liked to talk to him about it on the few occasions where they ate some ramen together, so he tuned the speech out and instead continued on with going through the theory for the new jutsu once again. When he finally returned to listening to what Iruka was saying said Chuunin had already started calling out the teams.

"… and Hayashi Yuudai. Team Seven will consist of: Uzumaki Naruto,…"

It seemed like Naruto had returned from his thoughts right on time. He unconsciously let out a small sigh of relief that he hadn't missed his own name being called. He snapped back to attention when Iruka continued reading up the names.

"… Haruno Sakura…"

Naruto didn't know if he should jump for joy or groan. It would be very awkward to work with a person who hindered him from thinking properly. But he'd try his best to make it work. He absently wondered what his soon-to-be team-mate thought about the situation though.

* * *

Sakura was not in a good mood.

Her day had started off well. Then she met up with Ino and they started to fight as usual. And now she would be forced to be in the same team as the dead-last.

'_Off all the people I could end up with it had to be that immature idiot! Sasuke-kun better end up in my team as well or I think I'll tear something to pieces!'_

'_**Hell yeah! And if Sasuke-kun end up in the same team as Ino-pig I'll hold Naruto responsible!!'**_ came the voice of her inner personality.

Years of uncertainty and lack of self-confidence had caused Sakura to develop another personality within her. This 'Inner Sakura' was everything that the girl thought she wasn't, and always managed to cheer her up or boost her confidence when she needed it.

She glanced at her soon-to-be team-mate and was slightly shocked at what she saw. Since when had Naruto, the guy with no fashion sense, started to dress as a normal person? She had to admit that the clothes that he was currently wearing fitted him, and he looked slightly more mature without all the orange. Then she caught herself. Naruto, mature? The very thought was ludicrous.

But then there was his whole reaction to Iruka's announcement. She had thought that he would jump and scream for joy at the thought of being in the same team as her, yet he seemed slightly subdued. For the first time in what would soon be a common occurrence, she wondered if the picture she had of the blue-eyed boy was wrong.

She was brought out of her musings --which had only lasted a few seconds-- when Iruka announced the last member of Team Seven.

"… and Uchiha Sasuke."

* * *

Right there, Naruto lost faith that he would ever have something happening in his favour.

He knew that not only would working together with the arrogant Uchiha be impossible, but he also knew that said boy would probably get most, if not all of the attention of their Jounin sensei. Not only was Sasuke the 'Rookie of the year', he was also 'the last Uchiha', and therefore a very important person in the village.

Naruto held no illusions though. Sasuke was very talented, overall he was probably a better ninja than Naruto as well. But that was to be expected. While Naruto was hindered and ridiculed, Sasuke was coddled and praised, something that had not only boosted his skills, but also his arrogance. Something Naruto was sure the team would pay for, himself more than the others.

He was fuming all throughout lunch, and only continued to do it when they were back in the classroom, waiting for their sensei to arrive. They had now waited for two hours, and while Naruto normally enjoyed silence it now gave him too much time to brood, something he really didn't enjoy doing.

Just when he was about to snap, the door to the classroom opened.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi had had quite a troublesome day. He was just preparing himself for a day off with a high quality book --_'Very high quality.' _he thought with a slightly perverted giggle-- when he was interrupted by a message to come to the Hokage tower immediately. And now he was going to take on a team of snot-nosed brats and train them. Normally, he would just test his team, then fail them. But as the Council had assigned him the Uchiha brat, he was forced to pass them all, deserving or not.

'_Well, there goes all my free time.' _he thought with a sigh as he drew a hand through his long silver hair, hair that seemed to defy gravity in that that it tried to stand out as much as possible.

Had he known that he would have to take care of Genin he would almost have reconsidered leaving ANBU. Though team-mates died too easily in that organisation, and Kakashi doubted that he could take any more deaths without losing his mind.

So he was stuck with the brats. And speaking of those, he remembered the conversation he had had with the Hokage about his future team.

-Flashback-

The meeting between the Jounin about to take on Genin teams and the Hokage had just finished. Kakashi was about to leave when the elderly voice of the Sandaime held him back.

"Kakashi-san, I would like to speak with you privately."

It was phrased as a simple request, yet the silver-haired Jounin clearly knew an order when he heard one. He sighed, turned around, and stood at attention before the desk of the Hokage once again.

"What is it Hokage-sama?" he asked in a lazy drawl.

"There are a few matters that I would like to discuss with you concerning your team of Genin." came the reply.

"Is this concerning Sasuke?"

That would be the obvious reason after all. Sasuke was the last Uchiha, and the only one in the village with the potential of unlocking the Sharingan, one of the most powerful bloodlines in existence. Kakashi absently raised his hand toward his left eye at that thought, then caught himself and lowered it again.

"While the Council have assigned you as Sasuke's Jounin sensei, I have no interest in talking about the Uchiha. Instead, I would like to hear your thoughts about your second student, Naruto."

This surprised Kakashi slightly. Uzumaki Naruto was a mediocre student who had barely passed the academy. Why the Hokage would be interested in that boy was not something he could figure out.

'_Oh, right… Naruto. That's the Kyuubi kid…'_

Kakashi was hardly a man who would blindly assume that a jinchuuriki was a demon reborn, yet he never really could stand being close to the blonde container. The boy simply reminded Kakashi too much of his sensei. Yet he would not allow petty feelings as that to impede on his duty. He was a proud shinobi of Konoha, and thus he would carry out his orders without question.

"I don't know really. He _seems_ to be nothing more than a boisterous loudmouth. Yet if my instincts are right he is likely more than one can see on the surface."

The Hokage smiled slightly at that, and Kakashi couldn't help but feel as if he had passed some sort of test. Had he not been in the presence of his leader, he would've sighed in relief.

"That is correct. Naruto is much more intelligent than he lets on, yet I fear that my failure has lead to him having great difficulties in trusting people. More than that, I fear that while he lets on a strong front, he is very fragile right now, and even a single push in the wrong direction would put him over the edge. No one can keep as much emotion as he does bottled up for too long. So I need you to watch over and take care of him. He needs all the kindness he can get in order for him to stay sane. Frankly, it's a miracle he still is."

This caused Kakashi to halter all thoughts of reading Icha Icha and snap to attention. Had the boy really had it that rough? He knew that while the Hokage hadn't said anything about it, Naruto had likely lived through hell every single day of his life. If what the Sandaime said was true, then Kakashi's respect for the boy had grown by miles.

"Of course, Hokage-sama." was the only thing he said, still deep in thought.

"There is one more thing that you as his sensei should know, yet I'm afraid that he will have to tell you about it himself. It is important that you know of this, so try to win his trust as soon as you can. And I hope that you know that should you ever break that trust, your days as a ninja and a male would be over."

Kakashi actually gulped. That last part was said with no small amount of killing intent. He simply nodded, and vowed to himself that he would never intentionally do something like that.

Taking the Hokage's silence after that statement as a dismissal, Kakashi bowed toward the village leader, then vanished in a swirl of leaves.

-Flashback end-

And now here he was, walking down the corridors of the shinobi academy, trying to find the classroom he was supposed to go to.

He absently fingered the slight bulge in one of his pockets, wondering if he should just ignore the team and spend the time reading instead. Then, about half a second later, he remembered the Hokage's threat and immediately dismissed that idea, no matter the fact that it was immensely better than meeting the brats who were to be part of his team.

He stopped mourning about the severe cut into his reading time when he reached the correct door. He slowly slid it open and peeked inside.

* * *

words:

**Jinchuuriki:** it literally means 'power of human sacrifice' and is the term used for those that contain a Bijuu

First of all, I'm sorry about the long wait. It took quite some time to write this chapter, and I still don't like how it turned out.

Second, I said in the last chapter that there will be no romance, and that still stands. The thing with Sakura is not love, and what it is will be explained soon. I'm not sure if I explained it good enough, but Naruto doesn't even know what love is.

The next chapter will include the real graduation and hopefully a few missions or something similar to that. It'll be rather interesting to actually start to write real fight scenes, and I hope that they'll be at least acceptable.

Right now the story is very similar to the manga/anime, but I will try to deviate from it more and more as time passes. Sometimes by replacing an event with something else, and sometimes by completely altering an existing event. The first time I will do the latter will be during the wave mission and I hope that the small twist I have planned will be something unexpected. I will also try to fit in more references to time and theories about what time is and how it works (mostly my own, which are probably far from the truth).

Sorry for rambling on. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I might answer and I might not. And again I would really like to hear your opinion of the story, or if you could find any errors in my language etc. (English is not my native language after all).

On a side note, the prologue for my other story 'Salvation of Lost Souls' is written, and I will upload it as soon as I start writing chapter one.

Thanks for reading!

/Andrin


	4. Chapter 4

Konoha had always been known as the greatest of the shinobi villages of the Elemental countries, yet what most people didn't know was that while part of Konoha's strength came from its proud and powerful ninja, there was another important factor that played in.

Konoha had, much like almost every other hidden village, established a lot of trade routes since its founding, yet what made Konoha unique was the effort put into keeping the trading fair and prosperous. There was always a team of ninja sent out when it seemed like one of their trading partners was threatened, and Konoha made sure to always root out any corruption that might try to take hold in their intricate network of trade routes.

All trades were equal in the opinion of the overseeing officials that handled the economy of the village, and every trading partner got his or her chance to negotiate their payment, rights, the frequency in which they should send their wares to the village etc. It didn't matter if it was the lowliest of peasants or the richest of nobles, everyone had the right to get a fair contract.

This not only led to making Konoha highly popular in the surrounding nations, but also allowed the villagers to find wares of high quality for a fair price at all times during the year.

So why Uzumaki Naruto was only allowed to buy expired food for twice its actual cost was beyond his understanding.

That was why he was now walking through the isles of the food store closest to his home under the guise of a middle-aged man with a slight limp. He had started using **Henge no Jutsu** for shopping purposes a few months ago, and he was still slightly amazed by the difference.

When he was before barely even allowed into the store, and had to pay a small fortune for just enough food to survive the week, he could now safely buy any type of food he wanted, without having to worry about being overcharged or simply thrown out.

'_It's a real pity that you need identification in order to buy anything within the stores for shinobi gear though. Otherwise I would've used this trick months ago to get rid of that horrible orange jumpsuit.'_

Now Naruto didn't hate the colour orange. In fact he rather liked it. But his previous jumpsuit had been a bit too much, even for his standards, and it also itched terribly. Yet, his jumpsuit was the only clothing he had, so he had put up with it. Now that he had graduated however, he was less than inclined to run around on missions with clothing that practically screamed 'please kill me'.

Absently putting some fruit into his shopping bag, Naruto turned his thoughts back to the meeting with his soon-to-be Jounin sensei.

-Flashback-

Just when Naruto felt like he couldn't take it anymore, the door to the classroom slid open and a tall man with silver hair stepped lazily into the room. He was clothed in the standard Jounin uniform, which was just like its Chuunin counterpart apart from the slightly modified flak vest, along with a pair of fingerless gloves with steel plating, commonly used in ANBU. The man had tied his hitai-ate across his forehead, and kept it slightly slanted, so that it covered his left eye. The right, visible eye, was grey in colour, and currently held a bored expression. The entirety of the man's face was covered by a dark blue mask, hiding it from the world.

"My first impression of you is… that I hate you all." the man said with a smile. At least Naruto thought it was a smile, as his visible eye crinkled up in a way that seemed to indicate that that was indeed the case.

"Meet me on the roof of the academy in ten minutes." and with that, the Jounin was gone.

Ten minutes later, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were all sitting on one of the benches placed on the roof of the academy, all of them looking at their soon-to-be sensei with various degrees of interest mixed with annoyance.

"Alright then. Why don't we all take our time to introduce ourselves then." said the silver haired Jounin.

"Um, sensei, what should we say." asked Sakura, voicing the question that went through the heads of all three of the Genin gathered on the roof.

"How about your name, likes, dislikes, dreams. You know, things like that." the Jounin began, and at their nonplussed looks continued, "Perhaps I should go first then. Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi, I like a lot of things, and don't really hate anything. As for dreams…" he trailed off at the end, gazing lazily at the fluffy clouds soaring high above them.

"Why don't you go first Pinky?" he continued, turning his gaze toward Sakura, who yelped slightly at being picked out first.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I like to bake, read and…" she trailed off and turned her eyes toward Sasuke, blushing slightly at the same time.

"My dream is to…" again she trailed off and stared longingly at the raven haired boy next to her.

"And your dislikes?" Kakashi asked, trying to keep his slight annoyance out of his voice. He hoped that Sakura could change, because he would not have a fangirl on his team.

"Naruto." came the answer, her voice slightly venomous.

Said boy just sighed, he really had no idea why she hated him so much. He hadn't really done anything to her, and yet she always acted like he was nothing more than an immature buffoon. _'Perhaps because I always acted like one.' _he thought dryly, berating himself mentally for forgetting that she saw him as just the kind of person he had pretended to be. He was broken out of his musings when Kakashi spoke up again.

"Alright, you next Blondie."

Ignoring the jab about his hair colour, Naruto wondered what he should say. He didn't really trust his sensei, they had just met after all, but then again he had promised himself to stop acting, and he had to show everyone who he really was sometime, so why not now? He decided to go for a mix.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, training, gardening and those close to me. I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook, hospitals, people who think they are better than others, not having enough money to buy ramen at the Ichiraku's and those who judge people without getting to know them. My dream is to one day become Hokage and live up to a certain person's expectations."

Kakashi simply smiled that strange smile with his eye again, then turned his attention toward Sasuke.

"Alright, Mr. Dark and Broody. What about you?"

Sasuke merely grunted, then answered with a bored tone.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like very few things, and I hate almost everything. I have no dream, as what I plan to do _will_ happen. That is rebuilding my clan, as well as killing a certain man." his voice had a steely edge to it at the end, and his onyx eyes had gained a murderous glint.

Ignoring the small amount of killing intent that had begun leaking out of Sasuke, Kakashi clapped his hands together to regain the attention of his team, then said "Well, now that we've introduced ourselves I'd like to tell you about the test we'll be having tomorrow."

"Test? What kind of test? And while I'm at it, why will we be having a test in the first place?" came the reply from Naruto, who had a calculating look on his face, no one had told them about being required to take a second test after all.

"I'm glad you asked." began Kakashi, "You will undergo a survival exercise, and your score on it will determine if you'll become Genin or not. And before you interrupt me, the exam you recently passed was meant to pick out those who had the potential to become Genin. Out of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will pass, giving this test a failure rate of 66.6 percent." all of this was said with that strange smile, and when he had finished, Kakashi handed each of them a slip of paper.

"This paper holds all the information you'll need. Remember to bring all of your gear. And before I forget.. I'd advice you not to eat breakfast, you might throw up if you do."

And with that, Kakashi was gone, the only trace left of him being a few leaves fluttering in the wind.

Sighing, Naruto read through the information written on the paper. All that was written on it was the time and location where the test would take place, along with the things that Kakashi had already told them.

He looked up, noticing that both of his team-mates had gone, sighed once again, then began making a list in his mind about the things he would need to buy today.

-Flashback end-

And now here he was, in line to pay for his wares. He wasn't buying much, just the essentials, as his small allowance wasn't enough for anything fancy, and he wanted to go to the Ichiraku's to celebrate should he pass the test tomorrow.

Paying for his wares, he thought again about the jutsu he had been developing, and smiled slightly at the thought of being able to try it out as soon as he returned home. Perhaps there was something good coming out of this shopping tour after all.

* * *

'_I hate our sensei.'_ was the sole thought currently occupying the mind of Naruto. He had been waiting at the training ground his team was told to meet up at for nearly three hours now, and he was beginning to lose his patience.

"Aargh! Where on earth is he?! Kakashi-sensei told us to meet him here at eight a.m. Now it's close to eleven!" from the sound of it, Sakura was having similar thoughts.

Naruto turned his gaze toward the last member of team seven, hoping that the raven haired Uchiha was as annoyed as he was at their late sensei. However, Sasuke gave no outside indication of any annoyance, only sitting under the shade of a tree, gazing toward the edge of the forest closest to the village, as that was the direction that their sensei would probably arrive from.

As Sasuke didn't seem to care about his two team-mates in the slightest, Naruto figured that he was the one who had to calm Sakura down, as she had begun to pace around the clearing they were gathered in, sending hateful glares to anything that moved.

"Sakura-chan, calm down. I know you're annoyed at Kakashi-sensei, but you should try to conserve energy so that you'll have more during the test should you need it." seeing Sakura turning her glare toward him, Naruto gulped, then added, "Besides, you could kick sensei's ass for being late easier if you do."

At this, Sakura couldn't help but laugh slightly. The expression of slight panic on Naruto's face, coupled with his lame attempt at a joke caused most of the frustration she felt to seep away. She would have to do something about his slightly vulgar language though. Stepping toward him, she gave him a smack on his head.

"Ouch! Why did you do that Sakura-chan?" came his reply, his voice getting a slightly hurt tone, he had only tried to cheer her up and give her some small advice after all, so why did she hit him?

"That should teach you not to speak like that in front of me or Sasuke-kun." she answered with a small huff.

Sasuke, who had overheard their exchange of words and --in Sakura's case-- fists, merely grunted, seemingly annoyed by his team-mates' antics.

A sudden puff of smoke and a lazy "Yo." signalled the arrival of Kakashi, and all three of the Genin in team seven instantly turned their attention to their sensei, each one expelling a small amount of killing intent.

Kakashi merely smiled, completely ignoring the murderous looks his soon-to-be students were giving him.

"Sorry I'm late." he began, "My alarm clock broke when a black cat caused a mirror to fall on top of it, and I had to buy a new one."

'_Had this been a manga I'm sure that this is the part where we're supposed to sweatdrop.' _Naruto couldn't help but think. That excuse was so pathetic it wasn't even funny. He was broken out of his musings when Kakashi addressed them again, slightly more serious this time.

"Now that we're all here, I can begin explaining today's test." Ignoring Sakura's mumbled reply that Kakashi was the one who was late, said Jounin picked two silver bells from one of his pockets, then continued "Your task will be to get one of these bells from me. You will be allowed to use all of your gear and will have until twelve before the test is over. Those who haven't got a bell at that time will be tied up to the poles over there." he paused and gestured toward three wooden poles standing at the edge of the clearing, then continued with the explanation. "They will then have to watch as I and those that did get a bell eat our lunch. Oh, and they will also be sent back to the academy."

All of this was said with his strange smile, a smile that Naruto had become oddly used to by now. Kakashi fastened the bells to his belt, told them to come at him with everything they had, then started the alarm clock he had brought with him.

Immediately the three Genin of team seven darted out of sight, hiding away amongst the trees surrounding the clearing.

'_Good, they've all gone into hiding, it seems like they know at least the basic things a ninja is supposed to do when facing an enemy of unknown strength.'_ Kakashi thought, scanning the woods for any sign of his students. His visible eye widened slightly when he caught sight of the green-clad form of Naruto, right in front of him.

"Well aren't you a strange one? One of the more important things for a ninja to do on a battlefield is to find out as much as possible about an opponent without exposing oneself, yet you've decided to meet me head on."

"Less talking and more fighting please, Kakashi-sensei." was Naruto's reply as he slipped into a sloppy version of the taijutsu stance taught to all the students of the academy. Kakashi sighed as he saw this, he had hoped that his blonde student would be better than this.

Naruto was preparing to charge at his sensei when he caught sight of said Jounin's arm moving toward the accessory pouch he had attached to his belt. The blonde tensed up, preparing for anything… Well anything apart from what Kakashi actually brought out. It was a bright orange book. Not only that, it was the same book that he had found Sarutobi reading several times, the famous erotic bestseller, Icha Icha Paradise.

His right eye twitching slightly, Naruto tried to ignore the Jounin's blatant disregard of his skills, it would not do to lose his temper when faced with an enemy of this calibre.

Only partly successful in calming himself, Naruto decided to charge now, while he still had some hold over his temper left. Quickly reaching the silver haired man, he threw a cursory punch at him, which was effortlessly dodged. Expecting this, Naruto followed the movement of his punch, using the momentum go glide into a spin kick, trying to hit his sensei's legs from behind in an attempt to trip him. This was also dodged without any visible effort from Kakashi's part, the Jounin hadn't even turned his gaze away from his book yet.

All of this had caused Naruto to lose all of his temper, so he increased the speed of his assault, throwing as many punches as he could toward the man in front of him. His punches weren't even blocked, Kakashi only dodged them all, still not looking up from his reading.

After an especially vicious punch, Naruto blinked in confusion as the Jounin had apparently disappeared. A calm voice behind him revealed the location of his sensei, and he dodged to the left as swiftly as he could. He got up from his roll as soon as he could, looking back toward the spot that he had been standing at seconds before, seeing Kakashi holding his hands in something similar to the tiger seal, the placement of the hands indicating that if he hadn't dodged at that precise moment, Naruto would have a very sore behind right now.

Forcing himself to calm down, and purge his head of disturbing and painful mental images, Naruto slid back into the same taijutsu stance as before, this time keeping his distance, watching his sensei for any sudden movements.

Kakashi had do admit that he was impressed of the way that his student had dodged his attack. However, he was slightly disappointed that it had been that easy to cause the blonde to lose his temper, he decided that he would have to help his student get rid of that as it could be a liability in the field.

Eyeing said boy, he was again slightly impressed that the blonde had managed to calm down and take on a more defensive stance. As Naruto was clearly expecting an attack, Kakashi decided to give the boy what he wanted.

Still keeping his nose in his book, he charged at the boy, throwing a quick punch that caught the blonde completely by surprise. The punch caught him squarely on the jaw and, due to the force of the punch, he flew back and crashed into a tree where he… puffed into smoke.

Blinking in surprise, Kakashi chuckled a bit when he realised that he had been played with from the very beginning. All this time he had been fighting a shadow clone, and yet he hadn't noticed the difference at all. Normally it was quite simple for him to see the difference between a ninja and his or her clones, yet he hadn't noticed _anything_ with Naruto's clone, something that had him slightly startled. However, it seemed as if Naruto had gotten the idea of studying an opponent without giving yourself away too much a bit better than his team-mates had. Kakashi couldn't even sense where the boy was hidden, something he could do with both of his other students. Deciding that the clone's performance had been enough for him to see that his blonde student was good enough to be in his team, even though his taijutsu could do with a lot of improvement, the Jounin decided to seek out and test his other students next.

Naruto, who had been hiding a short distance away from the battlefield, rubbed absently at his jaw as he concentrated on keeping his chakra from revealing his position while at the same time going through what he had observed from the battle between his clone and Kakashi. As he had expected, there was no way for him to get a bell from the Jounin alone, at least not with taijutsu. What he hadn't expected however, was the speed in which his sensei moved and punched. And speaking of punches, he could actually feel that punch from where he was hiding. It was as if he and not his clone had been punched, and he really wondered why that was. Filing the information away for later, as he was still in the middle of the test and couldn't dwell on matters that weren't important for getting a bell, he tried to figure out what to do next, still doing his best to hide away his chakra.

As his chakra was different from everyone else's he had practised with it a lot, so much in fact that he knew precisely how it would act within his body at all times. Because of this, he could completely control how his chakra would move about inside him, and thus could hide it all away, hindering anyone from sensing his position by tracking his chakra. When it came to channelling chakra outside of his body however, he had a lot of problems. It was actually a small wonder that he could use the jutsu he had invented at all, as he had a really hard time in channelling just the right amount of chakra needed. It was the reason he couldn't do the regular **Bunshin no Jutsu** required to pass the academy graduation test after all. He simply had too much chakra and couldn't channel just the small amount needed for the jutsu, which led to the clones being deformed and unstable. The genjutsu he used to change the colour of his chakra was easy for him as he began moving the chakra in the right patterns before he expelled it, otherwise it would probably have been as impossible for him to do as **Bunshin no Jutsu** was.

Turning his thoughts back to the matter at hand, Naruto tried to figure out a way to get a bell from his sensei without any help.

'_Wait a minute. It's impossible for a single Genin to take on a Jounin in battle, at least when the Jounin is expecting it. The only way to actually get a bell is to work together, but that doesn't make much sense either, as there are only two bells and the rules clearly state that anyone lacking a bell will lose the test and be sent back to the academy. Why do I get the feeling that there is something I have overlooked. Oh, well… there is no point in dwelling about this matter right now. I need to find a way to get a bell alone.'_ Naruto was broken out of his musings when a loud shriek sounded over the woods.

'_That was Sakura-chan's voice.'_ was his first thought, and if he hadn't known that doing so would be to walk right into Kakashi's trap, he would've rushed off to find the pink haired girl immediately to see if she was alright. After a short mental debate, the part of him that was concerned about his team-mates' well-being won out and he sneaked off to find team seven's lone kunoichi in hope of being able to lend her assistance should she need it.

When he arrived at the spot where he had figured the shriek to have originated from he found Sakura passed out on the ground. After a cursory glance to see if there were any traps surrounding her, Naruto decided it was safe to approach the girl and he gently tried to get her to return to consciousness. After a little prodding she began to stir, then suddenly she flew up, her eyes darting all around the small clearing they were in, trying to find something. When she caught sight of Naruto she immediately began to ask him a multitude of questions, all revolving around Sasuke.

"No, I haven't seen Sasuke since the test began, and there are no bloodstains on the ground around here, so I doubt what you saw has actually happened. It is more likely that you fell victim to a convincing genjutsu." he answered after she had calmed down and told him what had happened to her.

"Oh." was the answer he received, but he paid it no mind as he was busy trying to think out what he should do from here on. In the end he decided to try on his earlier thought, they were just two after all, so it could work.

"Sakura-chan, I've been thinking. Perhaps you and I should try to get the bells together, there are two bells and two of us, and with both of us working together it would be easier to get them. And if Sasuke has gotten one already you can have the one left, ok?" he knew that he would throw away his only chance of becoming a ninja if it turned out that there was only one bell left but, after seeing what Kakashi was capable of, he highly doubted that Sasuke had been able to get his hands on one of the bells.

"Why would I want to do that?" came Sakura's reply, and before Naruto could say anything she continued. "If Sasuke-kun can get a bell alone then you and I need to do the same, otherwise we'd not be strong enough to be on his team." With that she dismissed him and jumped away into the undergrowth.

Naruto was slightly shocked by her reply. Her logic was extremely twisted and the idea itself was absurd, and yet he could find nothing to say against it. It made too much sense while it at the same time made no sense at all.

Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Naruto decided to give up the idea of teaming up and instead ran off to find Kakashi for a final try at getting the bells, trying to think up a plan while jumping from tree to tree to the point where he could feel Kakashi's chakra. He was sure that the Jounin was showing his chakra intentionally, but this was a test after all, they were supposed to find him. As he was going he noticed Sasuke stuck into the ground with only his head showing. As he saw Sakura running in the direction of Sasuke he decided to ignore the scene and instead focus on getting to Kakashi. Naruto estimated that he had about ten to twenty minutes left until the test ended and he had to hurry if he was to get a last chance of getting a bell.

When he finally reached his sensei, he found the silver haired man standing in the middle of the clearing they had started out in, his nose still buried inside that perverted book.

Giving out a small sigh, Naruto pulled out a kunai from the pouch on his leg and jumped down into the clearing. He had stopped focusing on hiding his chakra, so he knew that Kakashi knew exactly where he was.

"So you've decided to come in person this time." Kakashi stated, for once glancing up from his book.

"Yes, simply sending clones after you would get me nowhere." was Naruto's reply as he slid down into the standard academy taijutsu stance, slightly less sloppy this time. He had no chance of snatching a bell from his sensei in the middle of a taijutsu fight, so speed had to be the deciding factor here. He decided to test his own speed first, he'd rather not reveal his powers to his sensei this early, but he would do it if he was forced to.

Running at top speed toward his sensei he threw the kunai at him, then pulled his arm back for a mock punch and dived to the side at the last second, reaching out toward the bells in the middle of his roll. Kakashi, having seen through his intentions easily, altered his position slightly, so that Naruto missed the bells by a few centimetres. Not deterred in the slightest, Naruto tried again. He had decided not to summon any clones as they would halter him as much, if not more, as they would his sensei.

They repeated this for a short while, with Naruto running in and trying to snatch a bell with different acrobatic tricks, some more graceful than others, while Kakashi dodged them all.

'_This will get us nowhere. My normal speed isn't enough, sensei is just too fast. It seems like I'll have to use _it_ after all.'_

With that thought, Naruto jumped back a few meters and landed in a slightly crouched position, his arms crossed in front of him. Kakashi watched on in interest as Naruto began to slowly expel his chakra into the air. His visible eye widened slightly when he saw that the chakra wasn't blue, but a deep green in colour. Then Naruto opened his eyes, as he had kept them closed the entire time since he had begun with this strange procedure, and Kakashi was shocked enough to actually lower his book from his face. The blonde's eyes were glowing softly, and from what he could see, they each had eight strange green marks within them, forming something that was similar to an incomplete sundial. Naruto smiled at him, then disappeared. That took Kakashi by surprise, whatever the blonde had done, it had increased his speed immensely. Now very serious, Kakashi snapped his book shut, put it back into his accessory pouch, and raised the headband concealing his left eye, he would probably need the Sharingan to see Naruto from now on. He was correct, but was still surprised at the speed which Naruto was travelling at, and that the boy had waited until he was ready, as he could still feel that both of the bells were attached to his belt.

Seeing that his sensei was ready, Naruto charged in. It was a lot of fun seeing Kakashi do everything in slow-motion, but he had no time to be amused, there was only a few minutes left of the test after all. As he wasn't expecting Kakashi to have something special hidden under his hitai-ate, and certainly not something like the Sharingan, he was taken completely by surprise when the Jounin not only predicted where he was going, but also dodged and retaliated. He was even more shocked when the punch hit him straight on the chest, sending him flying for quite a distance.

Kakashi watched on in interest as Naruto flew away from the force of his punch. At first he had been flying away at the same speed he had been running in, something that was very surprising in itself. Kakashi knew that he didn't have that kind of strength, not even Tsunade of the Sannin could do something like that. But when he had flown for a short while, Naruto seemed to slow down, but he still hadn't changed altitude or anything else that could indicate that the flight was ending. After having taken a closer look Kakashi realised something that unnerved him greatly. The grass directly beneath Naruto was waving due to the wind, like the grass surrounding it, but it was waving at a _much_ slower pace.

'_He didn't speed himself up, he actually slowed everything around him down! But how?'_ was the thought running through the Jounin's head when he heard the alarm signifying the end of the test go off.

* * *

"Why is it that I'm the only one tied up?" asked a very agitated Naruto.

"Because I felt like tying you up." was Kakashi's reply, the now familiar smile present on his face.

Getting serious, the Jounin began to talk about the test.

"Now, it seems like none of you managed to get hold of a bell during this test, though Sasuke was close to getting one. This doesn't really matter however, as the test was never about getting the bells in the first place."

"Damn it, I'm so stupid." Naruto stated, having finally figured out what he had missed about the test. After seeing his team-mates giving him strange looks because of his sudden outburst, he decided to elaborate.

"It was all about working together toward a common goal, along with being able to make a necessary sacrifice for the good of the team, wasn't it Kakashi-sensei?"

"That's correct. I'm glad that you've been able to figure it out, even if it is too late now." came the reply, then Kakashi turned away from them and began to walk toward a large stone monument a few meters away from the wooden poles the team was gathered around or, in Naruto's case, tied to.

"Working together as a team is the most important rule for shinobi of Konoha. It doesn't matter if you know more than a thousand jutsu or is stronger than everyone you know, if you can't work together with and care for others it means nothing." he said in a soft voice, having stopped in front of the monument.

"This monument was erected in honour of Konoha's heroes, heroes who died while protecting this village and everyone within it. My best friend was one of those heroes…" he trailed off at the end, seemingly lost within memories of a life long gone.

Turning back to them, Kakashi stared at each of them seriously before saying something that Naruto would take to heart and follow throughout most of his life.

"'Those who break the rules are trash, yet those who abandon their team are even lower' never forget that. I will give you a second chance to get the bells after lunch." he tossed a pair of bento to Sasuke and Sakura, then continued "Don't give anything to Naruto. I make the rules here, and if I find you giving him a single bite I will disqualify you all, understood?"

After seeing Sakura's and Sasuke's nods he picked out a bento of his own, then vanished in a poof of smoke.

Sighing at the unfairness of it all, Naruto stared longingly at the food that was currently being eaten by his two team-mates. Against his better judgement, the blonde had decided to follow his sensei's advice and had refrained from eating breakfast, and he could feel himself getting hungrier by the second. Even so he couldn't help but be surprised when a bento was suddenly being held out in front of him, his surprise only increasing when he saw that it was Sasuke holding the bento.

As if answering an unasked question, Sasuke began to speak.

"If you don't eat you'll only be a liability later, and I will not be sent back to the academy because of you passing out in hunger in the middle of a test."

A little touched, Naruto smiled in appreciation. However, just as he was to reply to the Uchiha, Kakashi appeared before them, glaring at them all. Ominous clouds circled above them, and when the Jounin spoke his voice was heavy with rage.

"You three! You ignored my orders, knowing fully about the consequences. Therefore you three… Pass!" Kakashi's voice changed completely at the end, and he smiled at the three stunned Genin, perhaps being a teacher wouldn't be too bad.

After hearing their cheers --or in Sasuke's case, satisfied grunt-- however, he immediately decided that, yes, it would be bad.

"Now that we are a team we will meet up at the bridge close to this training ground at eight a.m. each morning for practise and missions. Tomorrow we will meet up at the Hokage tower for registration however. You are all dismissed."

After seeing Sakura and Sasuke walk off, Kakashi turned his attention toward the still tied up Naruto.

"Now, mind telling me how you pulled of that stunt you did at the end of the test?"

Sighing, Naruto began to describe his bloodline. He had known that it would come to this, so he had only himself to blame for not keeping it a secret.

After explaining everything, Naruto expected a multitude of questions, yet Kakashi only nodded, saying that he understood everything. Something in the tone of his voice told Naruto that not only did his sensei understand, but he also wouldn't betray his trust by revealing anything to anyone. His respect for his sensei growing considerably, Naruto gave him a smile and a thank you, signalling that he understood the hidden meaning behind the Jounin's words.

After he was untied however, his smile turned into a sadistic smirk. It was payback time.

"Kakashi-sensei, I believe this is yours." he said, pulling out an orange book from his accessory bag.

His visible eye widening, Kakashi immediately turned all of his attention toward the small book.

"My book! How did you get hold of it?" he said while searching through his own bag to see if it was actually his book.

"I snatched it from your bag before you were fully ready at the end of the test." came the blonde's reply.

"Very impressive Naruto, now could I have it back?" while he was impressed that Naruto had managed to snatch the book from him without being detected, Kakashi couldn't help but be unnerved by the glint that had appeared within his student's eyes.

"Now why would I do that? I think it would be much better if I just got rid of it. Smut isn't good reading after all." with that Naruto flashed through a few hand seals, still holding the book, then said **"Tokiton: E-jingo no Jutsu"**.

The effect of the jutsu was instantaneous, the book began to visibly age at a rapid pace, its pages first losing their print then simply falling apart into dust. Before long all that was left of the book was small flakes of paper, flowing away with the wind.

"Think of this as revenge for tying me up." was all Naruto said before walking away from his shocked sensei. It wasn't until he reached the very edge of the training ground that he heard the anguished scream that Kakashi let out, having finally realised that his beloved book had been turned to dust before his eyes.

* * *

It was the scene of Naruto happily slurping down noodles at a rapid pace that met the Hokage when he entered the small ramen stand that said blonde frequented; the Ichiraku's.

Smiling slightly at the sight, he sat down beside the boy before turning to the owner of the stand.

"I would like to have the usual Teuchi-san." he said with a small smile, then turned his attention to Naruto, who had yet to realise his presence.

"Good evening, Naruto-kun. I trust that your test went well?" he said, and was happy to see that the blonde gave no outside indication of being surprised. It seemed like Naruto had taking the training he had suggested about being more subtle seriously.

"Oh, hi Ojii-san. Yeah, it went pretty well." came the boy's reply, before he turned back to his bowl of ramen.

Shaking his head slightly, Sarutobi turned back to Teuchi and received his own bowl. Giving a small thank you, he turned back to the boy beside him yet again only to see said boy looking longingly at something down the street. Turning his gaze toward the thing that Naruto was looking at, Sarutobi felt his heart sinking. It was a mother and her young son, walking down the street hand in hand, smiling and talking to each other.

'_If only things were different… If only I had-'_ he stopped his train of thought there, he had been thinking about this far too many times before, and he didn't want all of his good mood to vanish. Still, Naruto should know about it.

"Naruto, I-" he stopped. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't force himself to speak. He couldn't reveal something like this to someone who had already endured so much.

"Huh? Did you say something Ojii-san?"

"No… It's nothing. Thank you for the ramen Teuchi-san." leaving enough money to pay for the meal, the Hokage left the stand, his bowl of ramen still untouched.

* * *

Jutsu list:

**Tokiton: E-jingo no Jutsu:** Ages an inanimate object. As it isn't used to influence the time of a living being it is much less complex than Tokiton: Kanshiki no Hitomukashi, yet it is also a lot weaker. It is used mostly outside of battle and as such could be easily dismissed as something worthless, yet with enough chakra it could even turn a large stone wall into dust and gravel.

I'm sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter, but I have had a lot on my mind lately, one thing being where this story will eventually go, and I've managed to figure out how the plot and the ending will be.

This is the first time I've tried to write a fighting scene, and I'm really not satisfied with how it turned out, but I hope that it will be acceptable.

You may also have noticed that most things are from Naruto's point of view, and I intend to keep it that way. This story is about Naruto, and most of the focus will lie on him, so the other characters will not get as much attention as he does within the story. This does not mean that I will neglect them however, they are simply not the focus of the story.

I have hinted at a few things that will be important later on in this chapter, and some of those things will be easy to pick out, while some will be slightly more difficult.

I'd really like to hear what you think of my story, and I'd also like to thank those who have reviewed so far.

Thanks for reading!

/Andrin


End file.
